|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| − | The Democratic Republic of Lisbane is a very large, environmentally stunning nation, notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 154 million love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.
| |
| | | | |
| − | It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of the Environment, Law & Order, and Defense. The average income tax rate is 70%, and even higher for the wealthy. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | The government has cut taxes in the face of widespread tax evasion, shanty towns have formed around the newly rebuilt commercial district, travel bureaus double as recruiting centers for national intelligence agencies, and referenda can be called for any law at the request of at least one third of the voting population. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Lisbane's national animal is the cat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Liza.
| |
